The Stolen Savior: He Loved The Wrong Sister Chapter 01
At her heaviest, Nora weighed over two hundred pounds, yet her boyfriend was Lucian—the aloof campus heartthrob from one of New York’s most elite families.
Nora never understood why Lucian was with her.
Until the day she brought him breakfast and accidentally overheard him talking with his friends.
“Lucian, don’t tell me you’re actually with that fat chick Nora? I heard she’s living at your place now. All that for a bet? That’s one hell of a sacrifice!”
“What bet? What could possibly make our Lucian, who never gets close to women, stomach living with a fat girl?”
“His bet with Camille, obviously. Camille bet Lucian that if he could stomach dating Nora for a year, she’d agree to be his girlfriend.”
The moment Nora heard that, she froze. Her chest tightened, and she suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe.
So the person Lucian truly loved was Camille.
Her half-sister from her father’s other family. The one who had driven her mother to her death.
“Camille’s skinny and gorgeous, sure, but with Lucian’s status, he could have any woman he wanted. Why go through the disgust of dating a two-hundred-pound fat girl just for Camille?”
At that, every gaze in the room turned to Lucian.
Lucian held a glass of whiskey. He took a sip, and when he spoke, his voice was soft but carried the kind of pressure that silenced an entire room. “Camille saved Snowball when we were kids.”
Snowball was Lucian’s Samoyed. Rumor had it the puppy was a gift from his mother before she passed away.
That was why the naturally cold Lucian doted on the dog like nothing else, taking Snowball everywhere he went.
“Ten years ago, Snowball was only a few months old when the estate caught fire. Camille risked her life to carry Snowball out of the flames.” Lucian’s voice was low. “Her own hair was singed, but she held Snowball tight against her chest.”
As he spoke, a rare warmth flickered in Lucian’s frozen eyes. Even his voice softened. “From that moment on, I knew Camille was the woman I wanted to protect for the rest of my life.”
Nora froze again. Her eyes went wide as she stared at Lucian in disbelief.
That fire at the Hawthorne estate ten years ago?
She had been there too. It was Lucian’s grandfather’s eightieth birthday banquet. Every prominent figure in New York high society had come to celebrate, and the Hartley family had been invited.
It was so long ago that Nora couldn’t remember most of it. But she clearly remembered risking her life to save a puppy, only a few months old, from the fire.
She remembered it so vividly because the person who started the fire was Camille. She had wanted to burn Nora alive.
The Hawthorne family’s power was terrifying. Nora was afraid that if they learned the truth, they’d take it out on the Hartley family. So she hadn’t left her name. She’d shoved Snowball into Lucian’s arms and fled in a panic.
Who could have imagined that ten years later, Lucian would have gotten the wrong person?
Her heart gave a sharp pang. A bitter smile crossed Nora’s face. She supposed it made sense that Lucian had mistaken her. Ten years ago, she’d been very thin, with long, slender arms and legs. Not like now, when she gained weight even on one meal a day.
“Woof!”
Lost in thought, Nora was suddenly tackled by Snowball, who came bounding over in excitement.
Lucian’s head snapped up. A cold gaze locked onto Nora instantly. “Were you eavesdropping?”
The interrogating tone made it hard to even breathe too loudly.
“No.” Nora shook her head, forcing herself to stay calm. “Snowball got loose. I was chasing him. What are you all talking about? Am I not allowed to hear?”
Lucian’s gaze softened slightly. “Just business. Nothing you need to worry about. I got you a gift. Go upstairs and take a look.”
Nora picked up Snowball and went upstairs. Sure enough, there was a gift box in the bedroom. She opened it to find a blue diamond bracelet nestled inside.
Nora recognized it immediately. It was the bracelet she’d been wanting for so long. The embarrassing part was that her wrist was too thick to wear it.
So Lucian had tracked down the designer and had extra blue diamonds added to lengthen the chain.
Now it fit her wrist perfectly.
Tears streamed down Nora’s face. Lucian, if this was all just a ridiculous bet, why were you so good to me?
Making me foolishly believe you truly didn’t care about my appearance.
Making me act like an idiot, thinking I’d found real love.
Seeing Nora cry so hard, Snowball grew frantic, nudging her repeatedly with his fluffy little head, trying to cheer her up.
But Nora only cried harder. She held Snowball and choked out, “You’ve been clingy with me since the first time we met. Is it because you recognized me all along?”
“Why could you recognize me, but Lucian couldn’t? Is it because I got fat and ugly?”
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, at the rolls of excess flesh, Nora broke down all over again. She barely ate anything. Her father and mother were both tall and slender. There was no obesity gene in her family.
So why had she been gaining weight since she was nine, ballooning past two hundred pounds despite desperate dieting?
Just then, Snowball accidentally knocked over the landline phone.
These days, almost no one used landlines anymore. But Lucian lived in the old Hawthorne ancestral manor, and the bedrooms still had vintage phones.
Nora wiped her tears and bent down to pick it up.
But she accidentally heard a voice coming through the receiver.
The extension downstairs hadn’t been hung up properly, and Camille’s voice came through. “Lucian, did you take those private photos of Nora I asked for?”
Then Lucian’s cold voice responded, laced with frost. “I won’t do something that low.”
“Not even for me?” Camille’s voice was a pouty whine.
Lucian went silent, but Nora’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Because Lucian had lied.
He had taken them. Their first time, Lucian had filmed it.
Nora hadn’t wanted to. But her weight had made her deeply insecure since childhood, and Lucian was so far above her. She’d been afraid of upsetting him, so she hadn’t dared refuse.
So why had Lucian just lied? To use it as leverage over Camille? Or to surprise her with it later?
Nora didn’t know the answer. All she knew was that her heart was about to shatter. For the first time, she’d overcome her insecurities and loved someone with her entire being, only to end up as a pathetic joke.
Before, Nora had been torn about whether to tell Lucian the truth about that night.
Now she wasn’t torn anymore.
She dried her tears, pulled out her phone, and sent a message to her Aunt Nadine in Canada: “Aunt Nadine, I’ve made up my mind. I want to go to that residential weight-loss program with medical supervision. Please sign me up.”
Lucian, you’re allowed not to love the two-hundred-pound me. But you don’t get to trample on my heart like this.
You don’t deserve to know the truth. And if I ever lose the weight, you won’t deserve my forgiveness either.Â